As they traveled through the hallways, they passed Verdantes of various sizes, some accompanied by Earth humans. Antaska heard faint whispering whenever they drew near. The humans stared with interest, some with big smiles, at little Potat rushing along beside them with quick movements of her short legs. The tall Verdantes waved their fingers and stared silently at M. Hoyvil but didn’t seem to notice the small cat.
Back in their quarters, M. Hoyvil noticed that Potat was tired out from the long walk. She headed straight to Antaska’s bed for a nap. M. Hoyvil felt recovered from his last big vocal conversation with Antaska. So he decided to work on some more bonding with her as Master Meeepp had recommended.
“Would you like me to tell you some details about our voyage?” he asked her.
“Yes, please,” she answered.
“Our first stop will be the Verdante home planet, located in the KOI-351 star system. On our way there, we’ve already passed some of the solar systems closest to Earth: Proxima Centauri, Rigil Kentaurus, Barnard’s Star, Wolf 359, etcetera. It’ll take about a month to complete the trip to the home planet, and we’ll stay there for about a week. When we land, some people will leave the ship and some will board, and we’ll load up with supplies for our hundred-year journey.”
M. Hoyvil’s vocal chords felt a little strained, but he looked down at Antaska and saw her staring up at him with interest, so he continued.
“Then, before heading out on our exploratory mission, we’ll make one more stop in known space at the Tri-Galaxies Space Station. It’s about three months’ ship travel time from my home planet. We’ll spend about a week at the space station, uploading the latest information on new solar systems that have been discovered. The ship’s crew will plot and register our course with the intergalactic space travel authorities.”
M. Hoyvil paused to grab a drink tube from one of the panel openings in the wall. Antaska walked over and climbed up to sit on the room’s big couch. He took a long sip and then walked over to stand next to the couch. Then he continued.
“At the space station, we’ll get off the ship and stay in special accommodations for Verdantes and Earth humans. The time will go fast with exploring tourist attractions and socializing. Then we’ll take off for deep space—on our way to increase our knowledge of the Milky Way galaxy and discover new sentient beings. That’s the basic overview of our trip,” he concluded. “Do you have any questions?”
The description of the trip was all that Antaska had dreamed of. All her life, she had longed for the coveted assignment of traveling to deep space working for the Verdantes. Forgetting about the tall Earth man who had been so much in her thoughts for the last two days, Antaska was filled with a new energy and enthusiasm. She wanted to get started with her new work right away.
“Can you tell me what my job responsibilities will be as your assistant on the trip?” she asked M. Hoyvil.
“Sure,” he answered. “Today is your first day as my assistant, and you’ll experience the regular routine of a workday. After breakfast, we’ll start every day with strenuous exercise in the gym. You’ll be in a class with other Earth humans. I know you exercised every day when you were in space school on Earth. But this will be much more intense.”
“Why’s that?” Antaska asked.
M. Hoyvil explained. “It’s because the life-extending diet supplements you’re getting in your food only work when combined with exercise. As you probably know, exercise lengthens your telomeres—the DNA molecules that affect aging. Cells die when your telomeres get too short to be able to divide, and then you get old and die. Exercise alone will only extend your life about ten to twenty years, but the supplements enhance and increase the effect.
“We give a weaker formula of these supplements to the Earth governments to add to their populations’ food, and we encourage Earth humans to exercise regularly. This has allowed your species to approximately double its life expectancy. But we can’t give humans on Earth the complete formula because some of the ingredients are dangerous if taken without enough exercise. And we can’t monitor the exercise habits of everyone on the planet.
“Now that you’re living with us, we monitor your health and fitness level every day. This lets you take the strongest-possible formula in each meal because we measure your body composition right before you eat. So now you can expect to live at least one hundred years longer than you had planned, or even more if you exercise strenuously.”
Antaska’s eyes widened.
“Don’t worry. We won’t force you to exercise if you don’t want to. It’s up to you,” M. Hoyvil said.
He waved his large green hands in a calming motion.
Antaska giggled. He must think I’m really lazy, she thought.
“I’m not worried. I’m just surprised,” said Antaska. “I’d like to live longer, and I’ll try to exercise hard if that’s what it takes.”
“That’s great,” said M. Hoyvil. “Anyway, after the gym, I have meetings before and after lunch. These might be boring for you, and you won’t have to go to the meetings if you don’t want to. I’ll take you today, and you can decide. In the late afternoon, I do work on my computer in our quarters. We have two days of rest after every five days of work.
“Of course, our most important work won’t begin until we discover new planets with humanoid species on them. At that point, you might be asked to act as our point of contact. How does that sound?” he asked.
“It sounds fine, but is there other work I can do until then? It could be many years before I’m needed for that.” Antaska asked.
She didn’t want to seem pushy, but she didn’t want to feel useless for most of the journey.
M. Hoyvil looked down at Antaska. He thought for a moment about how to answer her question. He eased his parched throat with another sip from his beverage tube, then spoke.
“Yes, there is something else you’ll do to help me on this trip,” M. Hoyvil began.
He knew that Master Meeepp would disapprove of what he was about to tell her.
“Most of the time, your role will be something like a travel companion. I’ll explain to you why this is so important. You know that the Verdantes are telepathic, but you probably don’t know the problems this ability creates for us.”
“Problems?” Antaska asked.
“Yes,” said M. Hoyvil. “On the plus side, it makes communication faster and clearer. Sometimes words can have more than one meaning, and it can be difficult to express an exact meaning within the limitations of a spoken language. But there are very few misunderstandings when someone is able to read your exact thoughts.
“On the minus side, being telepathic can be very disturbing. Other Verdantes can read my thoughts, and I can easily read theirs. But I don’t want them to know what I’m thinking all the time. And I definitely don’t want to know what they’re thinking. It’s worst when we’re physically near each other. That’s why we sit apart in the dining hall and usually stay at least five feet apart, except for the permanently mated adult couples.”
He saw Antaska’s eyes widen again. “So that’s why,” she said.
“That’s right,” said M. Hoyvil. “You probably saw the adult couples sitting on their side of the room. They don’t seem to have any problem with always knowing what the other one is thinking. It’s also not as much of a problem with family members we grow up with, and children don’t care who reads their thoughts. Unless they’re hiding something.”
He chuckled, remembering a certain time.
“But when we reach adolescence, it can be annoying. And when we leave home to go on a long space trip, it becomes a big problem,” M. Hoyvil finished.
His vocal cords and mouth muscles felt strained from the long explanation. He swapped his empty drink tube for a full one from the compartment in the wall and paused to gulp thirstily. He saw that Antaska was looking at him. She still seemed to be interested, so he continued.
“There’s a way to block others from reading our thoughts. We can ho
ld a mental wall around our mind. But it’s tiring, and we can’t do it all the time. So we have to stay apart a lot of the time to be comfortable.
“Now because the galaxy is immense, and we can only travel so fast through it, our space exploration trips are at least a hundred years long. That means spending a lot of time either alone or with other Verdantes. Either way, most space explorers in the past ended up with severe mental problems after making these trips.”
Antaska’s wide eyes got even wider.
I hope I’m not shocking her too much, M. Hoyvil thought. But Master Meeepp said I should tell her about myself too, didn’t he?
M. Hoyvil knew that in reality, Master Meeepp would most likely not approve of sharing this information, but he continued anyway.
“Being alone was a problem because all humanoids have a natural need to be around others in order to be emotionally healthy. And I’ve already explained why being close to people who can read your thoughts is a problem.”
He looked at Antaska for confirmation that she understood, and she nodded.
“We kept sending volunteers into space anyway because our species has a strong drive to discover and understand new sentient species. But the explorers came back with emotional scars that couldn’t always be healed.
“All that changed about 10,000 years ago when we contacted Earth humans and offered them our assistance and protection. Of course, we knew you were there for a long time before that, but until then, we didn’t have legal approval to contact you. The galactic authorities gave us that approval when we proved we had a genetic link to your species.
“At first, we wouldn’t take humans into space because we thought it might be dangerous, and they might be harmed. But the Earth humans were mad to get into space, if you’ll excuse that term. Thousands of them practically begged us to take them and swore that any consequence, including death, was a small price to pay for the trip.
“Finally, we relented, and a complicated legal agreement was drawn up between us and both your North and South Pole governments.”
He didn’t tell Antaska the terms of the agreement. It stated that Earth humans who went with Verdantes would become legally owned by them, relieving the Earth governments of any legal liability. M. Hoyvil decided to not mention that yet.
“The first trip was amazingly successful,” M. Hoyvil continued. “None of the Verdantes who took Earth humans with them returned with any mental problems at all. They said that Earth humans were perfect travel companions. They were friendly and sociable. The Verdantes could be close to them without knowing what they were thinking and vice versa. And the rest is history.”
M. Hoyvil finished with a slump of his shoulders and an exhausted droop of his eyes. His powerful hearing detected a tiny sound, and he looked toward Antaska’s room. Little Potat stood in the doorway looking back at him. He lifted the corners of his enormous green eyes in a friendly smile.
From the doorway, Potat, still unnoticed by Antaska, stared at M. Hoyvil. What he just said interested the tiny cat.
I wonder what else he’s not telling us, she thought. I should read his mind to check, just in case there’s anything I need to know. After all, he’s my pet too now. But first, I should find out what Antaska thinks about all this.
Antaska was sitting quietly looking still looking at M. Hoyvil. As she had done countless times before, Potat easily focused on Antaska’s mind.
Wow! This weakness that M. Hoyvil just revealed is astonishing! Antaska was thinking. I’m so surprised to hear that these technologically superior, telepathic aliens are so dependent on Earth humans.
Potat detected the swell of Antaska’s ego. Then it returned to its normal level when Antaska thought, That’s true, but without the Verdantes, humans wouldn’t be able to travel in space at all. Our technology for space travel is still limited to Earth’s own solar system.
At least she’s not thinking about that big hulky guy for a change, Potat thought.
She wiped a paw across her head to straighten down a few hairs.
Antaska still hadn’t noticed Potat. She spoke to M. Hoyvil again.
“Thanks for explaining so much,” Antaska said to M. Hoyvil in her polite voice. “I’m ready to get started on my first day as your assistant.”
Potat switched over to reading M. Hoyvil’s mind.
I’m so relieved that Antaska didn’t seem to be at all bothered by what I just told her, Potat read. And I’m glad she’s so eager to get out and about the ship. So far, she’s met all my expectations for the ideal pet—I mean companion. One who would be active and go with me around the space ship and space station, not one who would spend most of her time resting in quarters.
Well, that’s kind of offensive! thought Potat. Doesn’t he know that cats need seventeen hours of sleep a day to be healthy? But I guess I can forgive him since he’s only thinking about Antaska this time.
Thinking about sleep made Potat tired. She turned and went back inside the room and then jumped up on the bed. Potat curled up fast asleep on the round pillow, working on achieving the total sleep hours that felines of all sizes needed each day.
Chapter 7
After breakfast, M. Hoyvil took Antaska to the gym for her first workout. It was located between their quarters and the dining hall. An open archway led into an immense room the size of an Earth football field. Its tan-colored walls curved inward and upward to a domed ceiling about thirty feet above its deep-cushioned tan flooring. On the side of the room nearest to the door, Verdantes close to the size of M. Hoyvil exercised in two separate groups with two of the larger and heavier aliens as instructors. Males were in one group, and females were in another.
M. Hoyvil led Antaska to the back of the gym. A group of about twenty humans dressed as she was in tan t-shirts and exercise shorts stood facing their instructors. Antaska was shocked to see that the trainers were the attractive couple she had seen in the dining hall.
Up close, their defined muscles rippled underneath tight, form-revealing gym clothes. At about seven feet tall, they towered over the Earth humans in the class. Both appeared to have north European ancient Earth genes—high cheekbones, light skin, pale eyes, and blonde hair—and something else Antaska couldn’t identify.
They both turned to stare at Antaska as she approached. Long gold-toned hair flowed to the waist of the female. Her light-blue eyes shot ice fire at Antaska. The male stared with undisguised interest in his light gray-green eyes. He ran a hand through his straight platinum blonde hair.
M. Hoyvil spoke to Antaska.
“This is your class,” he said in a scratchy voice.
Then he walked back toward the front of the room.
For a moment, Antaska was frozen in her tracks, but she made an effort to stir herself. She joined the other students and stood among them looking at the trainers for instructions.
The two tall humans stared back unsmiling for a minute or two, looking over all their new students. Antaska felt grateful for the looseness of her clothes when she felt the eyes of first one, then the other, raking her body from top to bottom.
The stares of each of them made her uncomfortable but in different ways. A powerful thrill that somehow combined desire with fear twisted through her when the man’s eyes moved slowly up her body. His face wore a slight, somewhat lecherous smile. The woman’s cold, hard stare followed soon after, with her mouth set firm in a tight line. Finally, they finished their visual inspection, and the female spoke.
“Welcome new students. I am Tilde, and my partner is Eegor. I see that most of you aren’t used to a regular, intense exercise program. Starting now, that’s going to change. In the three months you’ll be in this class, we will work you hard. You will sweat, and you will strain. We will push and push you until you are in the best shape of your life. Do not even think about resisting; we are experts in what we do.”
Antaska was trying to pay attention, but Tilde’s first words distracted her.
She just called him her partner. Doe
s that mean teaching partner or something else? Antaska wondered.
“You will do intense cardio to burn off your extra fat and train your body to run fast if you need to,” Tilde was saying. “You’ll lift heavy weights to build up your puny muscles, and you’ll learn martial arts for self-defense. You’re about to go on a trip into unknown space where unexpected things can happen. You can count on your Verdantes to keep you safe. But they want you to be in top physical condition and to be able to defend yourself in case of an unlikely emergency. Now we’ll get started.”
For the first hour, the instructors had the students alternate ten minutes of running around the gym or jumping in place with ten minutes of lifting weights. The two trainers circulated among them. They corrected their form and demanded that they work faster or harder. Anyone who slowed down in their running or lifting got embarrassing personal attention. Either the male or the female trainer would stand directly in front of the slacking exercisers shouting into their faces.
“Why are you stopping, you weak, pitiful excuse for a human? Keep moving, or I’ll throw you on the floor and knock the wind from your body, and your Verdante will thank me for it.”
This motivation was effective, and Antaska was relieved to see that, so far, no one had ended up on the floor gasping for breath. She exercised as hard as she could to avoid personal attention. But she still found the male instructor standing in front of her when she was doing shoulder presses—lifting a heavy bar above her head twelve times without stopping.
“Your form is all wrong. I, Eegor, will show you how it’s done,” he said in a thick, rough voice.
Alien Pets Page 5
